2. What assessment has the Cabinet Secretary made of the role of cover supervisors in secondary schools? OAQ(5)0105(EDU)

Schools are responsible for identifying their staffing needs and the roles they fulfil. All learning support workers play a vital role in supporting teaching within and outside the classroom.

Could the Minister confirm that cover supervisors are not required to teach classes, because there is anecdotal evidence that this does sometimes happen? Their task, as I understand it, is to hand out the lessons that are prepared by the regular class teacher. There does seem to be some confusion about this.

Cover supervisors fall under the registration category of learning support workers. Cover supervisors provide short-term supervision in the absence of a teacher, and this should not involve teaching as defined by the specified work requirements. And it’s a matter for the headteacher to ensure that an individual is willing to undertake such a role and has the aptitude to carry out these duties. In determining whether a person has the skills, expertise and experience to carry out the work specified in the school, headteachers must have regard to set standards for higher level teaching assistants. I hope the situation is clear for all headteachers and others to understand it, and certainly, there shouldn’t be any confusion in any school across Wales.

Minister, obviously with the childcare proposals that the Government are putting forward, there have been submissions from the Government that you’re going to be using the school estate in some aspects to provide some of this capacity. Will you envisage that cover supervisors would be encouraged or trained to help support the Government’s roll-out of the 30 hours of free childcare over the weeks, as planned, or do you see no role at all for the cover supervisors that are provided in the current school estate, either in primary or secondary?

The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children is leading the roll-out of the childcare offer, as the Member is aware, and a part of that—. One of the reasons for the pilots that will be starting in September in different parts of Wales is to ensure that we have both the workforce available—the workforce that’s appropriate to the needs of the childcare offer that’s being delivered—and that it’s delivered in the settings that would be appropriate as well. And that will involve a different mix in different places, at different times. The Cabinet Secretary has updated the Chamber on a number of occasions on these matters, and I’m sure he will continue to keep Members informed of the progress of the pilots.